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Debbie, who played Weatherfield Arms landlady Carole Evans in Corrie and April Branning in EastEnders, was invited to Winner’s home in the early 1980s after he contacted her mum Mary, who was her ­theatrical agent.

Although not auditioning for a specific role, the young stage actress hoped the ­general casting could help launch her career on the big screen.

“I was thrilled when I got the call so I told everyone about it,” she recalls.

“I was an up-and-coming actress. This man had made movies in Hollywood. To meet him was an honour.”

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Debbie was shown to Winner’s ­office on the first floor of his mansion in upmarket Holland Park, west London, and asked to stand by a large window so he could supposedly see her in a better light.

Debbie says: “He asked me to take off my top, then my bra and told me to massage my breasts.

“I asked him to repeat the question because I thought I was hearing things. I started walking away from the window and he asked me why.

“I told him I couldn’t believe what he had said. I thought it was a joke so I was appalled when he repeated the question.

“I walked right up to him and told him, ‘f*** off, you dirty old pervert’.

“He got angry and told me he’d report me to my agent and to Equity, the actors’ union, for being inappropriate. He said my language and behaviour were appalling.

Actress Debbie Arnold, pictured during her acting days, was invited to Winner’s home in the early 1980s after he contacted her mum Mary (Image: Sunday Mirror)

“I said, ‘Good’ and walked out and slammed the door behind me.

“I felt threatened, because at that age I wasn’t sexually confident and when someone asks you to show yourself like that you feel vulnerable.”

Debbie ran to a phone box to call her mother, but she said Winner had already phoned her.

Debbie says: “He told her, ‘I played a trick on Debbie and she was fabulous, can she come back for a recall?’ How manipulative. I said I would never, ever see that man again.”

The actress reported him to Equity but claims she was laughed at down the phone.

She refused to go to the police because she feared it would ruin her career.

“If I reported him I would’ve been blacklisted in the industry,” said Debbie. “No one did it because they were afraid.”

The culture of silence also prevented Cindy from reporting Winner in 1985.

Michael Winner on the set during his time in the industry (Image: REX)

She says she was asked to expose her breasts at a general audition at his home. “He tried to make me feel inferior,” she said.

“He asked me where I had come from and I told him I had travelled from Chelsea on the bus. He kept asking how an ‘actress like you’ could afford to live in Chelsea.

“It was all a massive power play to manipulate me and downplay me before he asked me to take off my top and show him my boobs.

“I was so angry at his audacity. It wasn’t an audition for a nude role, so why would I have to expose myself? I felt so dirty.”

When Cindy refused, Winner’s mood changed.

“He became very p****d off and it was clear the meeting was over, so I let myself out,” she said.

Geraldine and Michael Winner arrive at their wedding at Chelsea Register Office on September 19, 2011, in London (Image: Getty)

“I don’t know what would have happened if I had shown him my boobs. Would he have tried to touch or could more have happened?”

Cindy did not have the courage to tell her agent or police.

“I worried he would take me to court, and I didn’t want to be known as that girl,” she said.

Cindy, who went on to play bar ­manager Tracey Booth in Crossroads and was a hostess in the ITV game show The Price Is Right, was sexually harassed again in the late 1990s by another ­producer she has chosen not to name.

“I didn’t say ­anything to anyone ­because I didn’t want to get them into trouble,” she said. “I felt it was my fault.”

Another actress, who wishes to remain anonymous, revealed how she went along with Winner’s lewd demand when she was only 16 and still in drama school.

Winner in 1963 with Diana Dors in a bedroom scene for the crime drama 'West 11' (Image: Getty)

She said: “I remember him sitting behind his desk with his fat cigar and ordering me to stand by the window and take my top off.

“I was terribly naive at the time and didn’t tell anybody. He was a vile man.”

Reflecting on his possible methods, Cindy said: “He only had to go through Silverlight, the actors’ directory, call these young girls’ agents and they’d be willingly standing in his office within 24 hours. It’s a horrible thought.” When Winner appeared years later on TV in the car insurance adverts it sent shivers down their spines.

“It made me so angry every time I saw him,” said Debbie, now a grandmother. “But I am not a victim I am a survivor.

“It doesn’t matter that he is dead, he still needs to be exposed.”

Last night Winner’s ex-actress wife Geraldine, who married him two years before his death, told the Sunday People: “Thank you for bringing your ‘article’ to my attention.